Pickled Dreams
by rumpelsnorcack
Summary: Today she wanted to see Harry more than usual because the dream she'd had last night, but couldn't quite recall, had left her with a weird sense of urgency and a desire to make the most of the time she had left with him.


_A/N: Apologies to those who are waiting for GPaTBWL. I'm having massive issues with it lately as it refuses to behave. Never fear, I haven't forgotten it and there should be more in the not too distant future._

**_His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad_**

'Have you seen Trevor? I can't find him anywhere.' Neville's anxious voice intruded into Harry's reverie. He had been anticipating Ginny finishing her lessons so that he could see her again. There was only another half hour to wait. Harry sighed and looked up at Neville, trying to process this question. He shook thoughts of Ginny away.

'No, I haven't. He could be hiding under Ron's bed; I've caught him under there sometimes.' Harry turned away, thinking the conversation was over.

'No, I checked. He isn't there.' The pitch of Neville's voice was rising higher with every word, and Harry turned back and looked at him carefully. He was pale and his eyes darted from side to side. He looked like he was about to run away and Harry grabbed his arm.

'Neville, calm down mate. He'll be round somewhere. Why are you so anxious anyway?'

'Snape just told me he'd pickled a fresh batch of toads, and ... well ... he said ... I want to find Trevor.' Neville's eyes had gone wild again, and Harry sighed and stood up. It looked like that time with Ginny was going to be put off again.

'Come on, Neville, let's find your toad. I'm sure he's fine, and having toadish sweet dreams somewhere.'

***

Ginny hurried to the meeting place, her face alight at the thought of seeing Harry again. Mondays were the worst because neither of them had free time together and all their classes were on opposite sides of the castle. The only time they could spend together was the hurried half hour for lunch, so she always looked forward to the time they shared between four and five when classes were over and it wasn't yet time for dinner. Today she wanted to see Harry more than usual because the dream she'd had last night, but couldn't quite recall, had left her with a weird sense of urgency and a desire to make the most of the time she had with him.

As she arrived at the tree where they always sat her face fell. Harry didn't have a class last thing on a Monday so he was always here first. It was so out of character for him not be there that a worm of anxiety twisted in Ginny's stomach, the urgent impression from the dream eating at her. Where could he be?

Ginny paced for a few moments, hoping Harry would turn up, that he had just been delayed by something. She heard a soft hoot and looked up to see a snowy owl flying towards her. Hedwig landed on her arm and gave her a soft peck that felt almost like the owl was trying to comfort her. Hedwig held her leg out and Ginny reached for the small slip of parchment there.

'I'm sorry. I have to help Neville find Trevor. Long Story ... Snape ... evil, you know the sort of thing. See you at dinner.' In a hasty scrawl at the very end were the words, 'I miss you.'

Ginny rolled her eyes, the twist of anxiety dissipating. That was Harry alright – always saving people whenever he could, and toads too, it seemed. There was no point staying here now. She may as well return to the castle and get some of her charms homework done. It was her OWL year, after all, so if she couldn't see Harry she really should do some study.

**_His hair is as dark as a blackboard_**

Harry cursed as his head crashed against the bottom of the desk he was crawling under. It was bad enough that he had to miss his time with Ginny, but here he was scrabbling around on the dusty ground, trying not to choke as the puffs of dust rose up around him. There was no way Trevor would be here in this disused classroom. What self-respecting toad would be caught in a place like this? But Neville had insisted when the toad hadn't turned up in the usual search.

Snape probably hadn't pickled Neville's pride and joy, but Harry agreed with him that it was a fine line and he knew that Neville wouldn't be happy until he saw Trevor safe and well. He sighed as he backed out from under the desk and looked over to where Neville was similarly crawling.

'I don't think he's here, Neville,' he said, regretful that he still wasn't done and couldn't ditch Neville to go and find Ginny. 'There's nothing but spiders and dust in this one.'

Neville looked up. There were smudges of black on his cheeks and his hair was almost grey from the dust that had clumped in it as he crawled. Harry knew he wouldn't look much better. Neville's eyes grew round as they stared over Harry's shoulder.

'Looks like I just found myself some Gryffindors out of bounds,' said a silky voice that sent shudders down Harry's spine. He wrenched his gaze in the direction the voice had come from and his heart sank.

'That'll be 50 points each I think, and another 100 for giving me extra work to do.' Snape's face was gleeful. 'Finding your toad, Longbottom? You should be looking in my offices, not here ...'

Neville's face twisted, and Harry could see out of the corner of his eye that he was about to do something stupid. He hastily stepped in to distract Neville. The last thing he needed was a detention right now.

'We're not out of bounds,' he said, waiting a beat or two before saying, 'sir.'

'If you had been listening to the opening speeches instead of making a dramatic entrance to the Great Hall, Potter, you would know that Dumbledore has forbidden students from this part of the castle.' He sneered at Neville, who had gone an ugly pale green colour. 'Longbottom should know that, but of course he's incapable of remembering anything for longer than five minutes.'

His frustration at not seeing Ginny all day, his hatred of Snape, and a new feeling the squirmed to life as he watched the way Snape goading Neville made him diminish all combined to make Harry see red.

'I'd rather forget things a bit than be a bitter, twisted person holding onto schoolboy grudges.'

Snape's eyes grew cold, lines appearing at the edges. Harry immediately regretted his outburst. Snape looked at Harry for several long moments. When he spoke, his voice was like a shocking blast of icy air as he said, 'detention, Potter. My classroom, immediately. I think a little cleaning of the blackboard with a toothbrush will teach you some respect.'

Harry opened his mouth to protest, then as he realised it would be useless to argue, he grimaced at Neville and followed Snape out of the room.

***

Ginny stretched as she finished her homework, looking around the library at other people gathering their books together and heading for the door. It must be time for dinner then. She quickly threw her books into her bag and eagerly headed down to the Great Hall. She scanned the Hall for Harry. Not seeing him, she slid into a seat next to Hermione.

'Hi Hermione,' she said. 'Have you seen Harry?'

'Isn't he usually with you on Mondays?'

'Yes, but he was helping Neville find his toad today ... or something.' Her brow furrowed as she realised she had no idea why Harry needed to help Neville find Trevor, who had, after all, gone walkabout many times without needing a rescue squad.

Just then Neville walked through the doors of the Great Hall and made his way towards their table.

'Ginny, Harry said to say he's sorry, but he's got detention with Snape and he can't see you until it's done.' He was ruffled, covered in grey dust and had large smudges of black on his cheeks. His eyes looked haunted as he sat down.

'Do you know how long that's likely to take?' Ginny couldn't quite keep the longing out of her voice and Neville shrugged at her in an apologetic way.

'I dunno. Snape's making him do some lines then clean the blackboard with a toothbrush. It'll probably be a while.'

Ginny caught Hermione's eye and rolled her eyes again. 'Figures.' She sighed, then turned to Neville and asked, 'did you find Trevor yet?'

Neville shook his head. 'No. I'm getting worried. I'm going to have a quick dinner then go looking again.'

Watching him shoving food in as fast as he could, the smudge of black still on his cheek and a terrified look in his eye, Ginny sighed. She could understand why Harry had gone to help him, and yet she wished he'd stop being such a noble git all the time.

She could just picture him, too. The grim determination on his face as he scrubbed every inch of the blackboard to be sure he wasn't made to do it again, the way he would grumble under his breath about what he'd done to bring it on and of course the way he would curse Snape. She sighed and tried to block out the thoughts and concentrate on those around her. Maybe it was time to eat dinner and then do some more homework. The thought wasn't appealing.

**_I wish he was mine, he's really divine_**

Teeth gritted, Harry scrubbed the blackboard, viciously, imagining it was Snape's face he was erasing. The toothbrush in his hand was old and worn down almost to the base so the process of cleaning with it was tedious to say the least. Harry couldn't say how long he'd been there, but he knew the dinner hour was well past. His stomach was growling and he wanted more than anything to be curled up with Ginny on one of the couches in the common room.

He thumped the brush down on the black sheet in front of him as he imagined her leaning against him as they talked, her hair tickling his nose and her expressive hands fluttering as she described something she'd learnt in class today. Instead he was here, in what had to be the coldest classroom in the castle, listening to Snape's breathing rather than Ginny's. To top it off he had the sour knowledge that he deserved to be here. He had taken his bad mood about missing his meeting with her that afternoon out on Snape, and Snape had seized on the chance to punish him.

He glanced sideways at the professor, whose eyes glinted as they observed his frustration.

'Getting tired are you, Potter? Want to call it a night?'

'No, sir,' Harry managed through his clenched jaw. 'I'm almost done.'

'I'll be the judge of that.' Snape stood up and strolled over to the board. 'No, I don't think this is good enough Potter. You've left some streaks. Start it again.'

Casting a glare at Snape, Harry moved back to the other side of the board and started the painstaking job of scrubbing all over again. His thoughts turned once again to Ginny and he imagined what she would be doing without him there. Homework for her OWLs, most likely, he thought. Feeling a pang and missing her far more than he should, he worked as fast as he could to eliminate the imaginary streaks on the board.

***

Ginny grimaced as she went back to work on her Divination homework. She supposed she should be feeling virtuous about all the study she was in getting today but all she could think of was how much she missed Harry and wished he was here with her. There were people, like Lavender and Parvati who were sitting near Ginny doing their own homework with apparent enjoyment, who thought Divination was actually divine. If she told the truth, even Ginny usually enjoyed the subject now that she was being taught by Firenze rather than that useless Trelawney. Today, however, she stared at her charts and dream interpretation textbooks and scowled.

There was a time when a dream of Harry was all she'd had, all she'd needed in fact. At eleven just seeing him was enough to fulfil all her wishes, sending shivers down her spine and making her blush and fumble. Now it wasn't nearly enough and she really wished he was here. A dream, a memory, nothing managed to fill in the space where Harry belonged. The dream charts swam before her eyes and she rubbed them, a tired gesture that brought home to her how late it was getting.

She imagined Harry stuck in the room with Snape and trying not to lose his temper as he scrubbed the board with the toothbrush. As a punishment it seemed so pointless, making Ginny reasonably sure Snape had chosen something that would keep Harry busy for as long as possible. Grimacing, she tried to force her thoughts back to the dream she had been interpreting. A nebulous impression of great emotional pain had been her main memory from last night's dream. Firenze had been excited, babbling about planets and star cycles and dream alignment. He had assigned her to delve further into the dream to possibly help interpret what the stars were foretelling. Ginny sighed and tried to call up another memory to try and piece together more of the dream.

Making an effort to push thoughts of Harry away she focused again on her homework. The thoughts of Harry entwined with her memory of the dream and with a startled gasp Ginny realised that the dream had involved him. Finally concentrating, she tried to tease out why she had associated him with pain and the time slipped away as she worked.

**_The hero who conquered the Dark Lord._**

_Look at me: Harry Potter, the Chosen One, the Boy Who Lived - still here at ten o'clock at night scrubbing this blackboard. Bet they'd all laugh if they could see me now. _ Harry's stomach rumbled as he worked, back aching from the strain. He had been very careful the second time to cover every inch of the blackboard, desperate to get finished before Ginny went to bed. He was pretty sure she'd wait for him, if only to blast him for being stupid enough to get into detention on what was supposed to be their day together, but she may just be angry enough to make him wait for morning. Finally he stepped away and knuckled his fists into his back, stretching his tired muscles, enjoying the sensation as his back popped itself into alignment.

Alerted by the movement Snape looked up. He came over to the board and cast his eye over it infuriatingly slowly. Eventually he turned to Harry.

'That will be all, Potter. Best get back to commiserating with Longbottom on his lost love.'

Harry's eyes glinted with hate but he didn't say a word, turning quickly on his heel and heading towards the door before Snape could find another imaginary streak to make him clean off.

As he got to the door he heard a chirpy croak, and stared in disbelief at the small, very alive toad that hopped out from under one of the desks.

'Trevor?' he asked, incredulous.

'I told Longbottom he should have looked down here,' Snape said, his voice rough with sly amusement.

Harry gritted his teeth together to avoid saying something else that would land him with another, probably worse, detention. He scooped Trevor up and headed to Gryffindor tower as fast as he could.

***

Ginny was so focused on her dream analysis that she didn't notice when Harry came into the common room. She didn't notice when he placed Trevor into a very relieved Neville's arms, she didn't notice when he smiled as his eyes rested on her. She didn't notice as he walked over to her. She didn't even notice when he sat down next to her.

She had figured out that her dream had included images of Harry with a smooth round ball she recognised from the Ministry as the prophecy with his name on it, and others of him and Voldemort locked in a deadly battle. For some reason the images of a connection between their wands filled Ginny with dread and a tantalising feeling that there was something more, something she was missing, tickled at the back of her mind. The dream interpretation book was no help. Dreams of Voldemort apparently meant you were afraid of losing control in your life and that didn't seem appropriate for this case. Ginny's brow furrowed as she leant over her charts again, trying to tease out what the dream was telling her.

'Hey, Ginny,' a voice said softly next to her ear and she jumped.

Thoughts of the dream slipped from her mind as she threw her arms around Harry and hugged him to her. 'Merlin, Harry, you startled me.' She looked into his tired eyes and added, 'how are you? What's the time?'

'It's around 10.30, and I'm fine now I'm here with you.' Harry's voice was tired too, but sounded proud as he added, 'I found Trevor, at least, so Neville's happy.'

Ginny pulled back and cast a glance over her shoulder at the group around Neville and grinned. 'He looks more than happy. I don't think I've seen him look quite that overjoyed before.'

'What are you doing?' Harry asked as he looked at the scattered dream chart.

Ginny rubbed her eyes and said, 'Divination. Firenze got all excited about a dream I had last night and he thinks I need to get to the heart of it, but it's still fuzzy and I can barely remember it.' She cast an annoyed glance at the papers on the table and grimaced. 'I'm packing it in for the evening and spending some time with my boyfriend.'

'I like the sound of that,' Harry said as she gathered her papers up and stuffed them unceremoniously into her bag.

They moved over to one of the couches that had recently been vacated by someone who'd decided to go to bed early. As Ginny tucked herself into Harry's side, curling her legs under her, she remembered why Harry had been in detention in the first place.

'What made you decide to ditch me for Neville anyway? I can't imagine he's a better kisser than I am,' she teased as she demonstrated. Harry grinned against her lips and told her.

'Snape said he'd pickled Trevor? That's so ... so disgusting. And he kidnapped him, which is just low.' She giggled. 'Do you know what that reminds me of? That stupid valentine I sent you in first year. I compared your eyes to fresh pickled toads – how did I ever think that was romantic?'

Harry sniggered and asked, 'how did that go again? The poem?'

Ginny shook her head, burying her face in his chest. 'I don't think I really want to revisit it, thanks. It wasn't my best literary effort even then ...'

Harry kissed her again, and the words of the poem rose unbidden in Ginny's mind. _The hero who conquered the Dark Lord_ ... could that be what the dream was about? Conquering Voldemort again? Remembering the pain she had felt while in the dream, Ginny shivered and held Harry as tightly as she could. Maybe it wouldn't be for a while yet. Maybe they had months or even years, and this one missed day wouldn't matter. The nameless fear tickled at her again and she kissed Harry passionately, trying to push the future away.


End file.
